Live Like You Were Dying
by ilovetvalot
Summary: Written for the Challenge 2 Songfic on Chit Chat on Author's Corner Forum. When Reid receives some bracing news, can Penelope help him through it?


_**Author's Note: **__**Calling all readers! Join us for our Awesome January Awards...to recognize and honor the best fics written for any of the challenges on "**__**Chit Chat**__** on Author's Corner" forum! All you have to do is send the title of your favorite fic (and author who wrote it) that was written for a challenge to either ilovetvalot or tonnie2001969's private message inbox. Stories by ilovetvalot and tonnie2001969 are not eligible for competition. Only one vote per person! For more details and full rules, visit Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum. You don't need to be an author to vote, simply visit the forum and review our challenge threads (stories are already and the threads will be pinned to the top of the page). So, everyone, come on over and lets have some fun. Voting commences now and ends January 31, 2011. Awards will be given for first, second and third place.**_

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_**Again, thanks for bearing with me, my fanfic friends!**_

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**Live Like You Were Dying**

_**Fanfic Challenge 2010 - Round 2 Assignments: Reid/Garcia, Song Title: Live Like You Were Dying**_

Penelope Garcia had always been a woman that liked being in the thick of things. Her profession was a direct extension of her personality. Her quest for the truth...the elusive, sneaky facts...unearthing those little known things that helped her team catch the depraved...it was her unique skill. And like a profiler, those traits extended into her real life whether she wanted it to or not.

Often, it was an innocent blunder that sent her stumbling into one of her colleagues' lives. Sure, she was nosy by nature. But, not maliciously so. She'd kept their secrets, no matter how deep and dangerous they may be. Always and forever, if necessary.

And then, as fate would have it be, she'd stumbled across something she couldn't ignore as she'd delivered a file to her favorite baby g-man. Her genius boy. Something she couldn't turn a blind eye to or conveniently forget she'd ever seen. Again, it was an innocent fumble into his private life. She'd only meant to drop a file on his desk that he'd requested.

Easy, peasy, everyday occurrence.

Except…today it wasn't.

Brochures littered her young friend's normally orderly desk. Pamphlets on skydiving, deep see diving, rock climbing...every un-Reidlike activity on the planet. Picking one up purporting the freedom of swimming with the dolphins, she narrowed her eyes and her intuitive hackles rose.

Something was wrong.

While Dr. Spencer Reid was a limitless number of things, physical wasn't one of them. Seriously, diving out of a plane? No freaking way! And last she checked, Reid could still barely tread water and keep his head above the drowning line! How in the name of Bill Gates was he going to swim with a goldfish, let alone a dolphin?

Sweeping the various informative papers into her hand, she strode toward the makeshift break room, otherwise known as Reid's hideaway. The boy mainlined caffeine lately. He swore it helped those constant headaches he seemed to suffer daily. If he was anywhere, he'd be found there.

Walking into the dimmed room, Penelope reached for the light switch automatically only to hear Spencer Reid's weak voice beg, "Garcia, if you like me even a little, leave those off."

Dropping her hand away from the switch, Garcia frowned as she peered into the dimly lit room. "Another one?" she asked, noting the dark glasses over his eyes - again.

"Yeah," he answered hoarsely, popping a couple of Tylenol into his mouth, dry swallowing the white pills.

"You know they make pills stronger than that which might help a lot more," Penelope noted gently.

Lifting his head, he looked at his friend. "And we both know I can't go that traditional route, don't we?" he asked softly, steepling his hands in front of him.

Plopping into the seat across from him, Penelope kept her voice low as she spread out his array of brochures in front of him. "Wanna explain these, my little wunderkind?"

Eyeing the pamphlets he'd been collecting, Reid sighed as he shrugged. "You snooping again, Pen?"

"I don't snoop. I dropped a file off and found these. What the heck do you know about touring the Galapagos, Reid?" she asked, glancing at the first glossy brochure. "You could give a rat's ass about nature. If Star Trek is on, you're in heaven. What gives?"

Closing his eyes behind his glasses, he deliberated how best to answer her. "I can't want to try new things?" he asked, a little more harshly than he meant.

"Sure. If you told me you were going to ComicCon, I'd never bat an eye. But, shark watching?" she muttered, pointing to one of the colorful pictures, a fin riding the surface of the ocean. "I don't think so. It raises a few red flags."

"There are things I want to do," Reid shrugged, wincing at what that movement cost his still-pounding head.

"Like be eaten by wild animals?" Pen snorted as she glowered. "Start talking or I go digging, mon petit. This is weird. It's like your're trying to live like you were dy..."

"Dying?" Reid supplied, massaging his throbbing temples.

And then all of the clues came crashing together into one violently horrible realization.

"Reid?" Penelope whispered, reaching out to grip his hand as she fought the sudden pain pounding in her own skull. "Gumdrop, start talking, right now!"

"They aren't just headaches. There's a tumor. A relatively small one that until it reaches a certain size, can't be excised from my brain," he explained softly, realizing the futility of attempting to hide any longer. "My chances are good and the doctor estimates that in a month it'll be a workable growth to remove safely. But just in case it isn't quite as simple as the physician thinks...I want to do things. I want to say I did things, Garcia."

"You want to live like you were dying?" Penelope breathed, tears filling her eyes, her vision blurring as she stared into his wide eyes.

"Exactly," Reid murmured, squeezing the hand holding his. "Will you keep my secret? Until I'm ready to share it with the others? I've already taken time off. I told Hotch it was for a sabbatical."

Nodding, Garcia swallowed. "Of course, I will. But you know you have to tell them before..."

"The surgery. I will. Right now, I just want to concentrate on living as much as I can. I want to take the risks I was always afraid to take before. I want the memories, Pen."

"I get it," Pen agreed thickly, her free hand sliding against one of the glossy brochures. "And I'll agree...on one condition."

"Why am I not surprised?" Reid smiled faintly.

"Because, you, my precious genius know me all too well. I've got some time saved up, too. I don't think I've taken a vacation in four years. Let me tag along."

"Pen, you don't have to..."

"I want to," Penelope insisted, squeezing his fingers for emphasis. "Besides, somebody has to shoo away the sharks if they get to close to that cage, right?"

"You're sure?" Reid asked, genuinely smiling for the first time in days.

"I insist," Pen nodded eagerly.

"A bucket list partner," he chuckled as he grinned. "Should be fun."

And blinking back tears, Penelope Garcia promised herself that her little Einstein was going to have the time of his life.

With her.

_**Finis**_

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_**Dedicated to Our Hero!**_


End file.
